Knitting New Scarves: 27 Distinctly Modern Designs by Lynne Barr
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Book Reviews of Knitting New Scarves: 27 Distinctly Modern Designs
Book Review: If you like Debbie New and Teva Durham...
Summary: 5 Stars
...you'll like Lynn Barr's inventive, inquiring, imaginative approach to scarves. To a great extent it's an architectural approach, not a decorative one. If you're looking for intricate stitch patterns and color-driven effects, look elsewhere. These scarves are knitted in the simplest of stitches -- garter and rib. But Lynn Barr manipulates these into three-dimensional shapes that twist, undulate and bubble up into completely unexpected designs. I don't find every one of them equally wonderful: some made me smile; others seemed laughable. (And a few very derivative.) Among the goodies: A scarf that's a string of black "pearls;" a clever (and warm) combination of shawl collar and scarf; a two-tone scarf woven of i-cord; ribs that ripple into 3-D waves. Barr's creativity would seem to be endless and her experiments succeed more often than they fail.
A word about the production, which other readers have mentioned. This is a photo-heavy book, with full-page shots of completed scarves. Each brief introduction to a design uses another full page. Margins are wide and type is indeed small. But the type is well-spaced and patterns are not word-heavy so, even with two cataract surgeries, a corneal transplant and strong reading glasses, I have no trouble reading it. The how-to photos, which often illustrate Barr's unusual multi-needle techniques, are among the clearest I've ever seen. I'm less delighted with the big pictures of the finished objects. Tyllie Barbosa is described as a food and product photographer. As a creative director and former editor, I'd hire her any day. The styling is beautiful and evocative, the lighting is great. But this is knitting photography: the reader contemplating spending weeks on a project wants to see what the whole item looks like, not an arty cropped or folded version.
Book Review: Why such small type?
Summary: 3 Stars
This book has some really interesting patterns--unusual would definitely apply to some of them. The colors used in the book are mostly earth tones, and you want a more or less plain yarn so that the stitch detail/construction shows through. I know I'm not the only person tired of the novelty yarns and boring garter/stockinette scarves. Great ideas for using up oddball yarns as well. The Circle Scarf would look great with a solid or varigated main section with the circles in complementary colors.
However, I was disappointed in the very small type (especially considering how much blank margin is left on each page) and the very dark-colored yarns used for many of the models (hard to see detail). When you enlarge the pattern so that you can read it, the pictures don't reproduce all that well, and that includes some of the technique pictures as well--would rather have had good drawings. Also, there was a lack of pattern multiple information--sometimes you want to make a scarf wider or more narrow, but not have to change yarns and/or needle size.
Buy used, as I did, because you'll be spending the money you save enlarging the patterns and the techniques on a copy machine so that you can read them without eyestrain.
3.5 stars.
Book Review: disappointment
Summary: 1 Stars
I returned this book. It was a big disappointment, as the designs included were bizarre and downright ugly! I had read an add raving about this book in Creative Knitting magazine and figured they'd know what they were talking about, but I guess the term "creative" was taken at its best! Poor, poor book. I only gave it one star because that's the only way I could get this review to go in!Book Review: Definitely worth purchasing!
Summary: 5 Stars
Knitting New Scarves is a treasure trove of innovative ideas using the most basic project completed by beginning knitters. It's a springboard that inspires creative touches for any project that you can dream-up!
Lynne Barr's book is a keeper!
Book Review: What Fun!
Summary: 5 Stars
I saw this beautiful book at the library and brought it home to peruse in more detail. I figured it would be fun to look at but that the patterns would mostly be beyond my complication threshold. But the more I read, the more I realized, I could do that one... and that one... and ... so I ordered my own copy from Amazon.
I've already made the very cool Aria pattern. It is so much fun to knit the short rows and make ripples. It makes a functional and fashionable scarf, and was amazingly easy. I've already got 3 more picked to try and may even get the courage to branch out into multiple double pointed needles. Although, I think I'll pass on the one with circles. The author is right that it is open to a range of interpretations. It reminds me of the splotches left by the salt monster on one of the original Star Trek episodes!
The prose are few, but clear and often poetic. The author introduces each scarf with a few words, usually about her inspiration and the required skill level. The unfamiliar techniques are explained very clearly in an appendix, with good pictures. The pictures of the finished products show scarves artfully draped, but clear enough to use as a reference for the overall pattern.
This book is for anyone who can comfortably knit and purl, but is ready to try something new. The scarves are beautiful enough to satisfy a more experienced knitter, and also inspire adaptations. The design and photography in the book alone are enough reason to add this to your collection.